The Republican journal., 1887-11-10

gents, and the excessive cruelty of which he
made use on frequent occasions." He routed
MatamOras at Puruapan, and put him to death
when prisoner of war. To revenge this
Cure Morelos butchered two hundred Spanish
prisoners in cold blood.
Late one December afternoon in 1915. at San
Crcstobal Ecatapcc, Morelos met his fate,
courageous to the last with his bandit fand-
fighting the Spanarls, this man-then just in
the prime of life, with the career all untried
for which he had so laboriously educated HIM
self, declared he was
CoNTENTED TO DIE,
since he had founded the beginning of an in
dependent government Kneelng before his
eXecutoners, he prayed: Lord. if I have
done well, thou knowest it; if i'll, to thy in
finite mercy commend my soul.''
1t is curious that priests should have taken
such share in the struggle for independence
for the Liberal party, which came into exist
ence through their heroic efforts, are the
deadly foes of Catholicism. Their lives OF
sacrifice and tragic deaths recall those holy
warrior-ecclesiastic of the Middle Ages, who
wore the secular as often as the spiritual arm
or. In an old convent of Cuautla, now adapt
ed to use as railway station, is a hall hung
with pictures of Mexican heroes. Naturally
the portrait of Padre Morelos is most promi-
nent in the State that is named in his honor.
In all his pictures he appears the same. with
the bold air of bandit chief and a red hand
kerchief tied around his head. To the disin-
terested foreigner it looks odd, typical of some
thing curiously illogical in the Mexican mind,
that the noted men of the past, to whatever
party they belonged, are canOniZed alike.
There is the first Iturbile. whom they shot as
| a traitor; and GonraleZ, who certainly ought to
have met the same fate. There is Bravo and
Guerrero who shot Iturbile, and Matamoras
PoririO DiaZ banished for the crime Of wish
ing to serve more terms than in the presi-
dental office; and Porfrio himself, who has
| so manipulated legislation and intmidated leg
slators that he has succeeded in making a bill
| pass both houses of Congress, amending the
constitution so that he may enjoy the presidcn-
| tial loaves and fishes for an indefinite period.
| All these Cpsar's and Brutuses, with dozens
more, are impartially honorcd in the picture
| galleries and smile upon each other with great
| est cOmplacency. Verify, it seems as if some
| high court of inquiry and review ought to be
constituted for appoftonlng out the merits
| and demerits of these dead worthless. Itur-
bides private journal is interesting reading,
and in it his account of the revolutionary lea,l-
| crs whom he was so active in eNterminating. is
far from flattering. The Mexican National
| Anthem,-a most stirring and martial air--in-
vokcs, among other things, the sacred memory
of Iturbide. If Iturbidc, whom they shot as
| Il traitor, deserved his fate, it seems much rs if
Americans should invoke the sacred name of
BENEDICT ARNOLD
in their "IIail We heroes heaven-born band''-
! for Arnold also had rendered excellent service
to his country, and there was no better soldier
than he before he became unduly intimate with
| the British.
\ good deal of very queer pottery may be
found in Cuautla AmilpaS, most of it made
in Cuernavaca, forty miles away. 1t is only
common earthernware, but bits of stone and
shell are somehow impasted into it. giving it
the look Of the old Roman mo>aics. One may
also find in the markets occasional pieces of re-
markables ridescent ware, but WHARF it is made
| do not know. The ware is rude, and the ar
ticles extremely thin and brittle, but the us-
tire is the true Saracenic,-the ancient Cubic
lustrc- shifting colors in changing lights
ruby, green, and blue 1t is the genuine rides
| cence. like the tiles of the Ahamhra. Is il
possible that the lon@-lost art may have been
| preserved in Mexico through all the centuries
brought here by descendants of the Moors:
| EAN\IE II W ,pI